Not Enough Time? 10 Tips Of Time Management To Make Every Minute Count

Time management – so elusive and marketable a skill that an entire industry has been built around selling it to every businessperson worth their salt.

It is, in effect, the art of mastering your waking – and sometimes even your unconscious – hours to make you as productive, bright-eyed, and at the top of your game as possible without the help of stimulants, time travel, or a miracle.

Managing your time may seem like an easy concept, but who has enough hours in the day to get everything done?

Not many people, that’s for sure. Some people even think that there’s not enough time for them in a day.

So, if you think you might be lagging when it comes to mastering your day, then check out this guide of useful tips on how to conquer the time-sucks of modern life and become an efficient, productive person.

These will help you overcome the illusion of having not enough time.

1. Get a Solid Seven to Eight Hours of Sleep Every Night

This one is a simple yet brilliant way of improving your time management skills: get more sleep.

Studies have found that people who get an average of seven to eight hours sleep are more productive, happier, and work at a higher quality than those who get less than seven hours of sleep a night.[1]

Getting plenty of sleep also ensures that you’ll be in a much more positive mood in the morning, increasing the chances of you getting more work done.

Making the most of your 24 hours might not seem conducive to getting a full eight hours, but many famous prolific achievers such as Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Thomas Mann all had full and healthy sleep. This suggests that time management is something best conquered on a good night’s sleep.

2. Rise Early in the Morning to Conquer the Day

One of the most effective ways to improve your time management is to start early in the morning.

Advertising

Rising early has numerous benefits, the most obvious of which is it allows you much more time to get stuff done. Making most of your 24 hours works much better when you’re up earlier. Studies have found that early risers are more productive and feel more accomplished at day’s end.[2]

Working as the sun rises gives you a head start on people still in bed, as well as ensuring that your brain, which according to research best functions two and a half hours after you wake up, gets the treatment it does.

There’s a reason the adage, ‘the early bird catches the worm’ has survived to this day.

3. Never Multitask

Multitasking is a common word when it comes to productivity and time management.

Everyone believes that multitasking is the way forward if you want to be a productive member of society, especially due to the numerous articles and books on the subject.

Studies have shown that breaking from one task to another and then back again in a short space of time (i.e., multitasking) actually shortens attention span and affects the quality of the work.[3]

Instead, work on one task at a time and engage in the ‘flow’, a state of consciousness wherein you are totally absorbed and engaged in one activity. It’ll have the awesome side effect of improving your attention span and allowing you to get much more done and in a quicker time frame in your precious 24 hours.

This vastly improves your time management and prevents the excuse of having not enough time.

4. Take a Twenty-Minute Power Nap Regularly

One of the most enjoyable ways to boost your time management skills is to take a nap. Research has found that a power nap taken after lunch – during one of the human body’s natural rhythms – can help boost productivity, creativity, and even episodic memory.

Studies have also found that a short nap, one that falls within the first stage of sleep and avoids the REM stage of sleep, can help ‘refresh’ the brain.[4]

Advertising

The other good way to nap is to take a full nap in the 90-minute sleep cycle that dictates circadian rhythms rather than waking up in the middle of REM sleep which is sure to make you groggy and irritable.

Taking a short afternoon nap helps improve your work ethic and your productivity. This ensures that you do more and better work in the time you have, making it a time management essential.

5. Bunch Tasks Together Throughout the Day to Stay in the ‘Flow’

Bunching tasks together can be an extremely useful task when it comes to working on and improving your daily time management. Scheduling your day together so that groups of tasks are bunched together allows your brain to stay entrenched in the same comfort zone for a longer period rather than flitting from one task to another.

Doing this encourages being in the ‘Flow’, a state of joyful productivity that encourages great work being done with an inherent sense of bliss and happiness, something that is easily desired and hard-won.

Fortunately, it is easier than ever to try and induce this ‘flow’ state. Bunching tasks together makes it easier to manage your day and get everything done.

6. Schedule the Heck Out of Your Days

This one is a bit of a no-brainer, but properly scheduling your days is a must-have tool for top-quality time management.

Proper scheduling can be a pain, but knowing exactly where you’re going and what you’re doing can help make the most out of your time. Scheduling is the art of forward-thinking – anticipating everything you need to get done and making sure you have enough time to do it.

Planning your day ahead with a big diary or work planner can be extremely useful in terms of time management, as is ensuring that you check timetables of public transport, weather, and every piece of information you need to take with you to work or to meetings.

It might be associated with an extreme level of perfectionism, but the goal here is not perfection. The goal is to give you the structure and time you need to deal with your day in the best way possible.

7. Figure out Exactly Where You Spend Your Time and Work on Improving It

We’re all guilty of wasting time. That isn’t a crime per se, but it is an unfortunate habit that you should block if you want to be productive and embrace time management at its fullest.

However, that isn’t to say that you shouldn’t relax or unwind throughout your workday – we’re not supercharged, no-stop-taking machines, after all. So, as a compromise between your actual physical needs and your best psychological self, you need to figure out exactly where you spend your time on an average day and work on improving that.

Advertising

For example, work on cutting out your commute time if possible or utilizing that time to better effect, such as brainstorming ideas; work on fitting your physical workout time to a small amount every day instead of a marathon-long session at the end of a week that wastes time.

Streamlining your time makes you more efficient and easier to do everything you need to do and want to do in your day – that’s a key component of successful time management.

8. Use Your ‘Dead Time’ to Your Advantage

‘Dead time’ is a concept touted by books such as Tony Schwartz’s ‘Be Excellent At Anything‘. It is a way of making time management work for your purposes.

‘Dead time’ is the time spent when we’re just waiting or doing nothing without a real purpose, and this can be useful in helping us do little bits and pieces of big projects.

If you need to review an album, take it on your mp3 player and listen to songs at a time when you’re stuck in the dentist’s office or at a quiet coffee break. Jot down ideas for your next big project when you’re waiting at the cinema to watch a movie.

The point of utilizing dead time is to use those random, useless moments to your advantage. That isn’t to say that free time itself is the enemy – far from it. Using your dead time will allow you to engage fully in your well-deserved relaxation time, without fear of feeling guilty or ashamed, as if there is something more you should be working on.

Make sure to make the most of your dead time, and you’ll have your time management skills on a whole new level.

9. Make Sure Never to Neglect Your Self-Care and Your Mental Health.

Self-care is one of the most undervalued yet important and central tenements of successful time management.

It’s an expectation in the modern working world to always be working and be available – whether through work or the many avenues of social media. But one of the most important things you can do every day is to take care of your self and make sure you have a chunk of time carved out for you and you alone.

Relaxation and self-indulgence both have restorative properties. Meditation has proven to reduce stress levels, and a short ten-minute meditation session allows for greater productivity and overall happiness.

Taking time out for yourself allows your body to rejuvenate and restore itself to the kind of mental, physical, and emotional state that allows for the best productivity and effective time management. In short, don’t feel guilty for taking time out to relax in the park with a book. You’re being your best self.

Advertising

10. Learn How to Say ‘No’.

One of the most important and yet terrifying things you can ever do is say ‘no’ – no to a project, no to a commitment, or no to someone’s request.

It’s so easy to consider saying ‘no’ as selfish – there’s always another demand, another request, another assignment or project you could pick up to your already overloaded plate.

However, burnout is a significant and terrifying psychological problem where people become so overwrought with stress that they end up hating their work. They may even experience physical symptoms such as physical exhaustion. Burnout is a growing problem across the global workplace, and it has to stop.

Just say no.

No one who actually cares will mind if you politely turn down their request, citing a too-busy schedule.

Taking care of your mental health is a top priority. So, even if it feels awkward the first time, learn to say ‘no’ to the projects you don’t want to have in your life and learn the art of keeping your work life simple.

These are the key to time management.

Final Words

Most people think that they don’t have enough time. But most of the time, they just aren’t maximizing their day. These ten tips will help you greatly improve how you manage your time.

How to Write SMART Goals (With SMART Goals Templates)

Everyone needs a goal. Whether it’s in a business context or for personal development, having goals help you strive towards something you want to accomplish. It prevents you from wandering around aimlessly without a purpose.

But there are good ways to write goals and there are bad ways. If you want to ensure you’re doing the former, keep reading to find out how a SMART goals template can help you with it.

The following video is a summary of how you can write SMART goals effectively:

What Are SMART Goals?

refer to a way of writing down goals that follow a specific criteria. The earliest known use of the term was by George T. Doran in the November 1981 issue of Management Review, however, it is often associated with Peter Drucker’s management by objectives concept.[1]

SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. There are other variations where certain letters stand for other things such as “achievable” instead of attainable, and “realistic” instead of relevant.

Advertising

What separates a SMART goal from a non-SMART goal is that, while a non-SMART goal can be vague and ill-defined, a SMART goal is actionable and can get you results. It sets you up for success and gives you a clear focus to work towards.

And with SMART goals comes a SMART goals template. So, how do you write according to this template?

How to Write Smart Goals Using a SMART Goals Template

For every idea or desire to come to fruition, it needs a plan in place to make it happen. And to get started on a plan, you need to set a goal for it.

The beauty of writing goals according to a SMART goals template is that it can be applied to your personal or professional life.

If it’s your job to establish goals for your team, then you know you have a lot of responsibility weighing on your shoulders. The outcome of whether or not your team accomplishes what’s expected of them can be hugely dependant on the goals you set for them. So, naturally, you want to get it right.

On a personal level, setting goals for yourself is easy, but actually following through with them is the tricky part. According to a study by Mark Murphy about goal setting, participants who vividly described their goals were 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to successfully achieve their goals.[2] Which goes to show that if you’re clear about your goals, you can have a higher chance of actually accomplishing them.

Advertising

Adhering to a SMART goals template can help you with writing clear goals. So, without further ado, here’s how to write SMART goals with a SMART goals template:

Specific

First and foremost, your goal has to be specific. Be as clear and concise as possible because whether it’s your team or yourself, whoever has to carry out the objective needs to be able to determine exactly what it is they are required to do.

To ensure your goal is as specific as it can be, consider the Ws:

Who = who is involved in executing this goal?

What = what exactly do I want to accomplish?

Where = if there’s a fixed location, where will it happen?

When = when should it be done by? (more on deadline under “time-bound”)

Why = why do I want to achieve this?

Measurable

The only way to know whether or not your goal was successful is to ensure it is measurable. Adding numbers to a goal can help you or your team weigh up whether or not expectations were met and the outcome was triumphant.

For example, “Go to the gym twice a week for the next six months” is a stronger goal to strive for than simply, “Go to the gym more often”.

Setting milestone throughout your process can also help you to reassess progress as you go along.

Advertising

Attainable

The next important thing to keep in mind when using a SMART goals template is to ensure your goal is attainable. It’s great to have big dreams but you want your goals to be within the realms of possibility, so that you have a higher chance of actually accomplishing them.

But that doesn’t mean your goal shouldn’t be challenging. You want your goal to be achievable while at the same time test your skills.

Relevant

For obvious reasons, your goal has to be relevant. It has to align with business objectives or with your personal aspirations or else, what’s the point of doing it?

A SMART goal needs to be applicable and important to you, your team, or your overall business agenda. It needs to be able to steer you forward and motivate you to achieve it, which it can if it holds purpose to something you believe in.

Time-Bound

The last factor of the SMART goals template is time-bound (also known as “timely”). Your goal needs a deadline, because without one, it’s less likely to be accomplished.

A deadline provides a sense of urgency that can motivate you or your team to strive towards the end. The amount of time you allocate should be realistic. Don’t give yourself—or your team—only one week if it takes three weeks to actually complete it. You want to set a challenge but you don’t want to risk over stress or burn out.

Advertising

Benefits of Using a SMART Goals Template

Writing your goals following a SMART goals template provides you with a clearer focus. It communicates what the goal needs to achieve without any fuss.

With a clear aim, it can give you a better idea of what success is supposed to look like. It also makes it easier to monitor progress, so you’re aware whether or not you’re on the right path.

It can also make it easier to identify bottlenecks or missed targets while you’re delivering the goal. This gives you enough time to rectify any problems so you can get back on track.

The Bottom Line

Writing goals is seemingly not a difficult thing to do. However, if you want it to be as effective as it can be, then there’s more to it than meets the eye.

By following a SMART goals template, you can establish a more concrete foundation of goal setting. It will ensure your goal is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound—attributes that cover the necessities of an effectively written goal.